40 Day Quest

Ever feel like you are ready to try something big - but you would kind of like to have a starting line? That is where I have been for the last couple of weeks.

God has been whispering to me that summer is over and it is time to get serious. As a mother of two home schooled second graders, I know what that means. Summer at our house means relaxing, resting, often over indulging, chucking the schedule out the window and going with the flow. The end of summer means it is time to get back - to school, schedule, discipline and all that these entail.

I have been looking for a starting line and it came to me today. The Pastor of our church (best Pastor in the world!) is personally starting a 40 day quest to spend time with and hear from God. He invited anyone interested to join along. After visiting a few blogs I see that I am just one of many that will be jumping in.

Let me say up front that I have never done anything like this. The closest I have came is when our church back home did the Purpose Driven Life study, but I was not very successful with that. I love to read - in fact would love to sit down and read the book cover to cover - but one chapter a day? Let's just say that I have read the first 7-10 sections a variety of times but have never made it past #11. If you have read my blog you know that I struggle with finding balance and once I missed a day it was just too easy to quit.

All that being said - here are a few things that are going to make up my 40 day quest.

• Finishing! For 40 days I am going to exercise my self control and bring my body, will, emotions and schedule into submission.
• I am going to fast reading fiction. Instead, I am going to be possibly the last Christian on the face of the earth to read (all) of Purpose Driven Life.
  
• I am going to transition my bible reading to smaller portions and greater application.
• I am going to try a few new spiritual practices. Journaling (both on my blog and in my journal (thanks Angie) and fasting. I have never fasted at all and with this quest will be trying a variety of them. As mentioned above I am going to fast one of my favorite activities - reading, but I also want to do a food fast. More on that later once I figure it out.

Three specific goals that will take me to the finish line. For me, I need to go read day 1.

As for you - feel like going on a journey?